These 5 are few of the many opportunities that are mushrooming and opening up for lawyers in the area of Corporate Law.
5 reasons why you should choose a career in corporate law
By India Today Web Desk: A recent report published by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs highlighted surprisingly astonishing figures in the growth of businesses despite the pandemic. The report stated through figures that as many as 167,076 companies were set up in FY22, a 7.5 percent increase from the 155,377 companies created in the previous year.
As one would expect, positive consequences from this growth flowed into positive hiring trends across sectors. Professional services and strategic companies as well as leading law firms in India have been on a hiring spree post the pandemic.
With the entrepreneurial fever at an all-time high for India and this century being touted as India’s Century due to our economic and business growth, these are my top 5 reasons for students to pursue a career in Corporate Law:
1. PEAKING MERGERS & ACQUISITION ACTIVITY IN INDIA
The merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in India touched a record peak during January-September 2022 despite a major slump in other geographies of the world. Lawyers play a very pivotal role in these commercial activities and are responsible for assessing the viability of these transactions from multiple perspectives. Hence, with growing mergers and acquisitions, we need to see a rise in corporate lawyers specialising in this area to provide specialised services to companies.
2. THE ENTREPRENEURIAL BUG BITING INDIA HARD
The number of newly-recognised startups in India has increased to over 14,000 in 2021-22, from only 733 in 2016-17, said the India Economic Survey 2021-22.India is the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China. India overtook the UK to emerge as the country with the highest number of unicorns, after the US and China. This growth has also led to an increase in demand of lawyers who specialise in catering to start-ups and providing them legal inputs in the following key areas- setting a comprehensive legal structure to raise capital, issuing equity to important employees, intellectual property matters etc.
3. CONTRACT MANAGEMENT- NEED OF THE HOUR
An exponential growth in business directly correlates to a humongous growth in contracts. These contracts create legally binding obligations for both parties and it is critical for businesses to manage these contracts efficiently. To assist in the same businesses, outsource contract management to law firms and lawyers to oversee the following aspects related to the contract- drafting, negotiation, approvals, implementation, execution and renewals.
4. GROWTH OF PRIVATE EQUITY IN INDIA
2011-2020 was a pivotal decade for the Indian Private Equity/Venture Capital (PE/VC) industry as it grew from a nascent alternative asset class to a mature ecosystem aggregating to a total of US$ 232.4 billion. Needless to say, this growth has translated into the introduction of a new specialisation for lawyers with an ever-increasing demand. Private equity lawyers assist funds and investors to invest directly in private companies. Private Equity Lawyers advise on the incorporation of entities, its structure and formation, tax, audit, compliance and regulations.
5. CORPORATE CRIMES- THE RISING DANGER
Growing simultaneously with the growth of corporations is the growth of corporate crime and fraud. The scale of these crimes is such that it affects a large section of the population and institutions such as banks etc. To manage the menace, we have multiple lawyers and full-scale law firms with robust departments that specialise in white-collar crime cases at all stages of progression. These teams conduct border fact-finding investigations on matters related to fraud, bribery, and corruption.
These 5 are few of the many opportunities that are mushrooming and opening up for lawyers in the area of Corporate Law.
With this century being touted to be India’s century in terms of opportunities for new entities and businesses to grow, it comes as no surprise that a plethora of opportunities and career tracks have opened up for fresh law graduates to pursue in the corporate law space. Students must ensure whilst in Law School to keep an eye open for these new pathways and prepare themselves adequately for these opportunities.
Authored by Kritika Padode Bhandari, Trustee, IFIM Institutions
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